Eagle Creek Software Services, a United States-based IT consulting and technical services company specializing in Oracle CRM, business intelligence and e-commerce software development, announced it has reached 100 employees in its Pierre, S.D., project center. The expansion, the company says, is a reflection of the heightened customer demand from companies for higher quality, lower risk IT consulting and technical expertise within the areas of CRM, BI and eCommerce software development.

The 100th Pierre employee milestone comes on the heels of the company celebrating its 13th anniversary. Eagle Creek has undergone growth since it was founded in 1999, including its hiring of more than 300 employees to work at the company’s three project centers located in Pierre, S.D., Valley City, N.D., and Eden Prairie, Minn. Eagle Creek operates three U.S.-based project centers founded on its Dakota model, which places the company’s facilities in locations that have lower cost of business, resulting in lower client costs. The Dakota Model utilizes a public-private strategic alliance between the company and the state governments of North Dakota and South Dakota to achieve consistency and sustainability in the recruitment, training and development of the company’s U.S.-based consultants.

Reflecting on Eagle Creek’s success, Simon Boardman, vice president of marketing at Eagle Creek, tells 5 Minute Briefing, that from a technology standpoint, broadly speaking, there is pent-up demand from some companies cautiously emerging from the recession. Companies have exhibited trepidation about what they are spending money on, but have also figured out how to leverage technology and how to leverage their employees through technology and as a result, they want to continue to invest in that area, he notes. And then, secondly, the nature of CRM technology is broadening to encompass customer experience management and not just customer relationship management.

“What we are seeing is that customers understand that they have to leverage process and technology to keep customers and win prospects, and differentiate themselves based on furnishing or provisioning a high quality, personalized, consistent experience for customers and prospects,” Boardman says. In addition, he notes, companies can reach a point where they realize they can only squeeze the costs down so far. If they squeeze the costs down as far as they can go, then in order to grow they have to increase revenue and if they are struggling to do that from a product or a brand standpoint, they can still differentiate themselves based on the customer experience.

“The 100th employee mark also signifies the strength of the Pierre project center and the increased customer demand for offsite development and support resources that work in a highly collaborative manner for critical customer-facing projects and without the risks associated with offshore models,” says Ken Behrendt, president of Eagle Creek.

“We are taking college graduates who have MIS or CIS degrees and training them up in specific technologies,” Boardman points out. “In the case of Pierre, one of the fundamental reasons we are successful is the level of cooperation we have with the community of Pierre and the economic development folks and community management people there and the state of South Dakota helping us staff a center like Pierre.”